פָּרָשַׁת חֻקַּת

Parshat Chukat opens with the parah adumah (red heifer), the model of a chok (statute, a law that has no rational explanation other than that Hashem commanded it), and then follows Bnei Yisrael (the children of Israel) into the last year of their forty years in the wilderness. The ashes of a completely red cow, mixed with flowing water, are sprinkled on the third and seventh days to purify one who became tamei (ritually impure) through contact with the dead, while the one who sprinkles the water becomes tamei himself. Perek 19, the parah adumah, is the special reading of Parshat Parah.

Then the leaders of the generation of the Exodus pass. Miriam dies at Kadesh, and there is no water. Hashem tells Moshe to speak to the rock; Moshe strikes it twice, and because Moshe and Aharon did not sanctify Hashem before Bnei Yisrael, they will not bring the people into the land. Edom refuses to let Bnei Yisrael pass through its land. At Hor HaHar (Mount Hor) Aharon's bigdey kehunah (priestly garments) are placed on his son Elazar, and Aharon dies; the whole house of Yisrael weeps for him thirty days.

Bnei Yisrael defeat the king of Arad at Chormah. When they complain about the manna, burning snakes bite them, and whoever looks at the copper snake Moshe puts on a pole lives. They sing to the well that gives them water, and they defeat Sichon, king of the Emori (Amorites), and Og, king of the Bashan, and take their lands east of the Yarden (Jordan). The parsha ends with Bnei Yisrael camped in Arvot Moav (the plains of Moav), across the Yarden from Yericho (Jericho): the generation of Moshe and Aharon is passing, and the generation that will enter the land wins its first victories.